Stop the War march on the 24th Feb...anyone?

Is anyone planning on attending the march on Saturday? It would be great to have an anarchist presence at the march. According to various sources it should be a very large march. Time to raise some awareness?

I did a bit of leafleting in Manchester a while back, I did my own one off version, thanks to the librating photocopier at work. (Hence it was free) It’s worth trying to get in front of the march (Hog the pavement) and leaflet people. It’s very temping to leafleting people on the march but “try” and avoid leafleting people on the march. If they want it then give it to them but it’s like preaching to the preached.

I think I got hecked by a Labour MP in Manchester and by a couple of other people which was quiet amusing.

Just got back from this. If some idiot with long, curly hair tried selling any of you a copy of Now or Never! then that was probably me.

I can't help but feel disappointed by the lack of libertarian socialist presence on the march. As always, there was no end to the people trying to unload various leninist propaganda, but virtually no anarchists doing the same. Me and Tug were both there selling Now or Never!s (although as much as I love Now or Never!, I have to admit that it's definately not the best introduction to anarchism), I saw one guy giving away resistance and I believe there was someone selling Class War (again, not an excellent intro to libertarian politics) and that was about it. I saw a small number of red and black flags, but most people marching nearby were just punks.

It's perfectly understandable why there aren't more of our lot on these marches. They do fuck all in terms of furthering the class struggle or stopping the war, but nevertheless, a lot of people who are disillusioned with the current state of things go on these marches, people who could potentially become anarchists if we reached out to them, but instead they are going to get pulled into some trot organisation. Obviously, the trots are going to have a larger presence than us anyway, but the fact that there wasn't really any visible anarchist presence doesn't fill me with much hope.

thats a shame mate, the manchester anti-war demo libertarian block with 100 odd participants and dozens of red and black flags was really uplifting for most and while we didn't have enough literature to hand out (the leaflets went quickly) it was a great day out.

But it didn't happen spontaneously, folk had to put some effort into it, not obscene amount by any means but anyway it required some organising and pulling together by AF and SolFed folk.

Where the hell was this autonomous bloc? Me and several others split up and spent the entire march, and rest of the day in trafalgar searching high and low for even the slightest hint of an anarchist presance.

I bumped into a few anarchists during the day who were all pretty pissed at the lack of an utonomous bloc.

And we couldn't fucking see one. Nor any anarchist material, that was supposedly handed out.

Someone's actually going to have to organise the anarchist block properly - have some proper kind of strategy for these things. Coconut Man is right - this is a massive opportunity to sell our ideas - be seen as a viable alternative (or at least start to look like one). I think this means it'll have to organised way in advance, flyered, postered, get placards made, maybe even some red/black flags to give away, have some if our photographers, generalised anarchist crits of war/protest printed up etc. rather than just being posted about TWO DAYS before the thing happens, then be surprised that no one shows up.

There was an autonomous bloc. There was a banner which read "RESIST" on it. There was a vortex banner. I say about 100 people on it. Loads of punks, though I think they were there by chance - not sure. The bloc was at the back of the march. I left when it left Hyde Park Corner some 2 and a 1/2 hours later. Pictures will be posted soon.

When we organised the block In Manchester last september we started with a planning meeting around 3 weeks before the march. Then we discussed a joint leaflet. We organised flag making and placard making.- and we were visible. It takes effort, comrades.

There was an autonomous bloc and if you positioned yourself at beginning of march at Hyde Park it would have been fairly easy to have spotted it as it marched past.
Interestingly, there were masked people behind the banner of the YOung Communist League!!! ( youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain)!

And there was a big Anarchist Federation banner on the bloc as well as banners already mentioned. We managed to set up a stall at end of demo and flogged fair bit of lit as well as distributing about a thousand Resistances

The march on Saturday was a little disappointing but I enjoyed wearing the lab coats and masks, bloody police tail for most of it. We felt very guilty after sitting down in front of a chalked message not realising that people where taking our picture with the message. My apologies go out to the poor anarchist whose thunder we stole. The police were twats, arresting people for chalking messages-criminal damage i was told by the police.

The march on Saturday was a little disappointing but I enjoyed wearing the lab coats and masks, bloody police tail for most of it. We felt very guilty after sitting down in front of a chalked message not realising that people where taking our picture with the message. My apologies go out to the poor anarchist whose thunder we stole. The police were twats, arresting people for chalking messages-criminal damage i was told by the police.

Ah you see, if you wear a mask it means you won't be handed a leaflet about Libcom - shame the same doesn't work with the trot-bots.

It might seem like a minor detail, but I think masking up at something like this does nothing except reinforce a negative stereotype of anarchists.

whatever, like I said I don't judge people if they want to wear a mask or not. I didn't feel the need so I didn't - I rarely see the need to mask up on most occasions in this country. However you never know what may happen and since there are cameras everywhere it is a precaution and has saved people from being identified.

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